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Thursday, May 19, 2011

That Divine Beauty..!

Beauty lies underneath the human skin, in the heart and soul then no matter if someone has wrinkly skin, dark complexion or even ugly face. This is something which gives you immense pleasure when you even think about it. Being a part of something like this is truly divine in itself.

Whenever I think of true beauty, humanity and living for it an incident creeps in my mind. A very old incident which really made me think deeply about our life and the motive of living.

Few years back when I was young and around 15-16 year old. When I hardly had any clue about what life really is; was selected for a Desert trekking Camp held at Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. I was the youngest participant so was being cared by everyone. In desert where greenery was hardly seen and water wasn't at all available, I was nearly dying with thrust. I had already walked 2-3 Km surviving on few drops every now and then. We all were running out of water and the next stoppage was only after 5 more Km. I felt the world going dark under the burning and smoking heat in that month of May.

No sign of any human being too. Just when I thought I would now collapse we heard a sound of Camel coming from somewhere nearby. A ray of hope crept in. We rushed towards that to find a small hut with grass made up and man standing next to his camel there. I felt breathe of relief going down my spine. It was a Pyau (A place where water is kept in pots for the travelers).

I was so happy that I almost ran towards it. There was this old very dark lady with wrinkled hands and face or everywhere. She had large white spots on her body. I didn’t really find it hygienic. As my face expresses a lot about what I think, Pankaj (An elder guy in his early 20's who took care of me during whole trip) pulled me back towards him.

"Stop making faces. it doesn't look good. Drink water". He whispered.

"Yeah, but she is so ugly. What if her hands are not washed? What if there would be germs in water? What if I fall sick? No, I won't have water from here." But I had no option. Looking at her hands, her cloths, her face I had water. I was about to cry with frustration.

I think that woman sensed the fear in my eyes. Smiling she called me with a gentle voice and said something which I don't remember exactly word by word but the meaning was "If you living for yourself, it’s not bad but if you living only for yourself then your life is not even worth living. You might be scared of doing something you don't know about but if you scared of doing something which you know is good for you, which is foolishness."

That time I thought those things was irrelevant but after hearing about her story from that camel rider I just knew what she was talking about.

Her husband was died in a war when she was just 27. At that delicate age her in-laws threw her out of house calling her a curse on family and thought her disease was a proof of that. They told her to leave and never show her ugly face.

She had nowhere to go. She roamed everywhere and then finally opened this place for water from the money government gave her and was living there since then. She was bit literate so she started teaching small girls and their parents gave her food for that.

It’s been 50 years and things have been same since then. People came and tried to give her money but she always refused. There were funds for that place to renovate and she used them for the same. A true example of living for the land who gave you birth. No desires, conditions and expectations, just a Nobel cause. So visible but still living in the Fog..!

Though there were plenty of gossips about her but still the goddess went on living for a cause to make that difference..!! To spread something which she never got; Love..!